I have to admit, this is the most excited that I have been about an install in an extremely long time. It made feel like a teenager, feeling my way through a sea of mods all over again. There was just so much excitement and anticipation. There was truly an impressive amount of parts in the kit. It took me a solid hour just to comb through it all and figure out what part each piece would play in the install.
Don’t worry, I’m not here to bore you to death with a step by step install guide. Vortech actually has an extremely thorough and detailed guide up on their website. They kind of make it dummy proof, so no fear needed when pondering the purchase for this kit. Just take my advice and click “Buy Now”.
To be honest, this install was really not as bad as I was expecting. Sure it was a bit tedious at times, but that’s about it. Nothing was too difficult to handle. In fact, everything leading up to getting the supercharger in there is basically just getting Ford’s fancy plastic out of the way. There is a little cutting involved (only the plastic) for the sake of fitment, but the Dremel tackled it very well.
Tips
This is a pretty damn large supercharger, so a lot of room needs to be made. Also, I highly recommend paying close attention to Vortech’s listed measurements when it comes to the bracket for the supercharger. The last thing you need to worry about is your pulleys not lining up, and possibly slinging the belt off. That’s a quick way to ruin a day, so do yourself a favor and just read the directions.
One thing that is not shown in the directions, but I do recommend taking the radiator completely out. It comes out easily and gives you a ton of additional room to poke around while also dealing with the large intercooler and piping. Be sure to have something to catch all of the fluid. Pretty much all of that coolant is coming out at some point or another.
Even though this engine bay is a tight fit, Vortech did a great job of making all of their parts snug down inside nicely. In fact, half of this install is just re-routing lines and hoses to keep them away from the new piping. Again, their install guide really takes out the guesswork and literally gives you all of the proper measurements to get the fit and finish that you want.
Vortech Maxflow Fuel Pump Booster
I don’t believe that it comes with every kit, but I highly recommend getting the Vortech Maxflow Fuel Pump Booster. This will help your fuel pump to shove more gas through those injectors. The last thing that you want to do with a forced induction car is to run out of fuel, especially when that charger is producing so much additional air.
Well, that’s it for phase 1 of the Vortech supercharger install. The kit is completely installed. The car is buttoned back up and running again. As of today, I have only driven it twice since the install, but we can’t give it hell until a tune. I’m sorry for the wait, but we will have dyno results and initial reactions in the following issue. Until next time….
Written by Mike Sanders
